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Greenhouse @ Ritz Carlton

Greenhouse is an award-winning restaurant located at the Ritz Carlton Singapore and it is mainly popular for its buffet servings and champagne brunch. It’s also well-known for its 2-3 weeks’ waiting period before one could get the chance to eat here. Let’s find out if this place is worth your wait.

Most frequent buffet-goers would probably share the same thought that when it comes to buffet, the consistency in the overall food quality and taste may vary from one day to another.

Greenhouse can be considered as the hallmark restaurant of Ritz Carlton, serving a good selection of both a la carte and buffet items. It is also one of the few hotels in Singapore that serves champagne brunch during the weekends.

I dropped by Greenhouse for lunch and despite the visit was on a typical weekday, the entire restaurant was totally filled. That probably explains the long waiting list was required before one could eat here.

As the restaurant name suggests, the decor at Greenhouse really does relate well to, well, a greenhouse. High, crystal clear glass ceiling allows natural light to penetrate through the entire restaurant with spacious buffet tables from one area to another. Space is abundant in this restaurant, which is a good thing.

Choice of food is aplenty but whether they appeal to you would totally be subjective. There’s around 12 different types of mains circling round the main section, ranging from rice, noodles, cooked seafood, meat and various types of vegetables.

Here we have some assorted vegetarian options for those who love greens.

During my visit there’s one of Singapore’s favourite delicacies, the Ngor Hiang (Five Spice) which I couldn’t help but to give it a try. Despite the Ngor Hiang was one of the first few items I tried at the beginning of the buffet, I was rather disappointed with the fried items as the oil used for the frying doesn’t taste that good and sort of gives you the feeling that used oil was used for the frying. That said, the sauce for the Ngor Hiang is quite good.

The roast meat section offers quite a good selection of roast duck, char siew and roast pork. No complains about the roast meat here but nothing special either.

The cold section is definitely one of Greenhouse’s limelights. Fresh sashimi, cold seafoods such as prawns and mussles (sorry, no oysters if you are thinking of that) and cold salads await you. Trust me when I say that the cold seafood goes out fast onto the diner’s plate so grab those while you can.

Sashimi items are skilfully and generously sliced by the chefs here. Fancy some salmon, tuna and swordfish sashimi? This is the section to go.

Sushi choices are aplenty at the sushi. There’s also a dim sum section with decent gyozas, char siew baos and har gao.

A good selection of bread is available for those who loves staple food made from dough. Just around the bread section is a good selection of asian flavour soups also. There’s also a salad bar where you can whip up your own salad if you want to.

Well what’s a hearty meal considered without closing it with desserts? Most of the desserts here are pretty good actually. The reason why I said most desserts is because some of the items really failed my expectations like the Tiramisu and other cakes.

The Ice cream selection at Greenhouse is quite good actually. There’s around 8-10 different flavours for dessert lovers to choose from. From your usual ice cream favourites to sorbets, I’m sure you can find something you like.

Fresh fruits are also available for those who needs aid in digesting the buffet.

ConclusionAll in all, Greenhouse doesn’t disappoint but at the same time, it doesn’t impress either. For $58 per pax for a weekday lunch I wouldn’t consider the entire buffet experience to be value for money, let alone paying for weekends when the price is higher. At one point of time I couldn’t decide what to eat at the buffet because none of the items really did entice me further after the first round. That said, service level was great as the waiting staffs are attentive and always within reach. So, will I be back again? Probably I would. Then again, I would also share with others not to put too much high hopes on the overall food quality when they finally get through the 2-3 weeks long waiting list.